Hidden Wings - Part I

Diagon Alley once again

This time, Esma and Jessamine handled the apparation much better.

Professor McGonagall led them through the Leaky Cauldron into Diagon Alley, and Jessamine felt giddy when she spotted all colorful shops, brimming with life.

"Get me some of those roasted pumpkin seeds, please", Esma chirped into her ear.
"I like those."

"Maybe later", Jessamine whispered back.

Professor McGonagall handed her a small leather pouch.

"I trust that you can find your supplies on your own, Ms. Lince?", the older witch asked plainly.

"Yes, Professor."
Jessamine could barely contain her excitement.

After agreeing to meet her Professor in three hours in front of Flourish&Blotts, Professor McGonagall disappeared into a store.

Skipping off into the crowd, Jessamine and Esma systematically went from one shop to the next, getting her new robes since her other ones were too small, as well as her books and other supplies.
When Jessamine asked for The Monster Book of Monsters by Edwardus Lima, she was not prepared to be led to a terrarium full of biting and snapping books, tearing each other apart. The salesman put on thick gloves and prodded the books with a stick, then stabbed them to fish out a monster book.

Handing it to Jessamine, he wiped off the sweat on his forehead.
"That's the last time I'm ordering these", groaned before doing a double-take.

The book lay calmly in Jessamine's hands and she smiled up innocently at the confused man.

"I think it likes me", she shrugged.

Esma eyed the book suspiciously.
"At least it's calmed by your presence", she peeped warily and stayed on Jessamine's shoulder, where it was safe.

The salesman shook his head, baffled.

When Jessamine left the store, she bumped into somebody.
"Sorry", she started to apologize before recognizing the person.

"Harry!", she exclaimed surprised, "are you getting your supplies too?"

Harry shook his head, his face glum.
"Are you alright?", Jessamine asked concerned.

Harry breathed in deeply before blurting out how he blew up his Aunt Marge, took the Knight Bus to the Leaky Cauldron, and was told by Mr. Fudge not to leave the Diagon Alley.

"And I saw a huge black dog", he added after a moment.

Jessamine stared at him.

"Wow", she said finally, "your holidays must have been way better than mine."

Harry smiled weakly.

"Seriously", Jessamine tried to cheer him up, "I spent the last week trying to fix our roof. Without a ladder."

Harry snorted.

"How have you been?", he asked her a bit more cheerfully.

Jessamine shrugged.
"It's fine, Esma is good company..."

„I'm great company", Esma flared and ruffled her feathers.

"-and it's been pretty calm, actually", Jessamine finished and smiled.

"Are the others here?", she wondered and looked around.

Harry shook his head.
"Ron and Hermione are coming tomorrow, and I don't know about Neville or Luna."

Jessamine smiled at him.
"It was great seeing you, I have to go now though."

Harry smiled back.
"I guess I'll see you on the train, then."

"Bye Harry."
Jessamine waved and walked past people admiring a Firebolt in the window of a shop. She arrived on time to meet Professor McGonagall, who took her back to the orphanage.

"I am not able to bring you the Hogwarts Express, so Professor Snape shall apparate you there", Professor McGonagall told her in front of the orphanage.

Jessamine nodded, she was a bit nervous to travel with the snarky Professor, even if it was for just a few minutes.

"Bye Professor", Jessamine smiled thankfully at her, and turned around when a loud voice boomed out of the orphanage: "Lince, get your ass in here and fix this damn roof!"

Jessamine flinched and ran inside, Esma fluttering behind her.

Professor McGonagall stood outside, shaking her head.

"Wicked muggles", she muttered disapprovingly, before hastening into an empty alley to apparate.

The hammer slammed down repeatedly, pushing a nail into a wooden board.
When the nail was in its rightful place, Jessamine wiped the sweat off her forehead, grabbed the next nail and continued.

Esma had flown off to meet some friends, so Jessamine listened to the conversation of two flies sitting on the roof, while she was fixing another hole.

It still unsettled her, understanding animals, and often she would answer to a voice addressing her before realizing it wasn't human. That had gotten her quite a few looks from the other children.

"It's outrageous!", the one fly buzzed, "one moment, I'm peacefully flying through the air and the next thing I know, a crazy little woman swats this thing at me to kill me! What have I done to her?"

"Humans are crazy", the other fly confirmed and Jessamine snorted.

Both turned around.

"Excuse me missy, is there something funny?", the first fly said loftily.

It reminded her a bit of Pansy Parkinson.

"No", Jessamine responded amused and grabbed another nail, "I'm sorry Mrs. Bludge tried to kill you."

The little fly hummed angrily.
"Next time, I swear I'll fly in her face when she sleeps, just to annoy her. Over and over again", it exclaimed and the second cheered.

"And I'll fly up in her nostrils", Pansy-the-fly added smartly.

Jessamine continued with her work while absentmindedly listening to the plans of the flies on how to get revenge on Mrs. Bludge.

At some point, to calm them down, Jessamine offered them a bit of her dessert from lunch, a slice of blueberry pie.

Pansy-the-fly and her companion instantaneously forgot about Mrs. Bludge and dove into their share of pie.

In the late afternoon, Jessamine finally finished and cleaned up her tools. The flies promised to show her their gratitude for the pie, although Jessamine wondered how they would try to do that.

Being small flies and all.

Well, the next day taught her to never ever underestimate flies.

Pansy-the-fly had round up her friends, so in the evening, when Mrs. Bludge was secretly enjoying a strawberry cake without intending on sharing, a large black cloud appeared in the back yard.
Buzzing and humming, hundreds of flies squeezed in through a open window.

Their target:
The cake

One minute after their entrance into the house, everything was still peaceful.

Then a loud, terrifying scream echoed through the building.

Mrs. Bludge came running out of the kitchen, shrieking: "An infestation! It's an infestation!" and ran, screaming, through the hallway to Mr. Ralf, her boss.

Jessamine, who was alerted by the noise, stepped cautiously into the kitchen, only to find a cloud of flies buzzing over a lovely strawberry cake.

"For you", they buzzed proudly before making their way out of the small kitchen, squeezing through the partly opened window and dispersing outside.

Laughing at the little flies, yet feeling a bit sorry for Mrs. Bludge at the same time, Jessamine quickly cut herself a large slice of the creamy cake, put it on a plate and rushed upstairs into the room.

Esma and Jessamine very much enjoyed it, and faintly heard Mrs. Bludge exclaiming downstairs, how she had been attacked by aggressive flies.